The Bird Doctor of Leavenworth

Mother was Ann Elizabeth Stroud b November 3, 1860 in Villa
Ridge, IL
and died August 18, 1938 in Illinois.

Father was Benjamin Franklin Stroud born in 1858 in Indiana
and died in 1928 in Placerville, California

Robert's father Ben was an abusive alcoholic and Robert left
home at age 13 with only a 3rd grade education. On January 18, 1909, Stroud was
working as a pimp in Juneau, Alaska and shot and killed F.K. (Charlie) Von
Dahmer for not paying Robert's girlfriend/prostitute Kitty O'Brien. On
August 23, 1909 Stroud was convicted of manslaughter and was given a twelve year
sentence at McNeil Island in Southern Puget Sound in the state of
Washington. Prisoner #1853-M arrived at McNeil Island on August 30, 1909
and frequently was in trouble. After stabbing a fellow inmate, Stroud was
transferred to the maximum security Leavenworth Prison with 40 foot high walls
and 40 foot walls below ground. Robert became prisoner #17431-L on
September 5, 1912.
On March 26, 1916 Stroud stabbed to death prison guard Andrew F. Turner in the
Leavenworth prison mess hall. Stroud later wrote that guard Turner
"took sick and died all of a sudden of heart trouble!" After several trials and appeals, Robert was
sentenced on June 28, 1918 to death by hanging. On May 10, 1920 President
Woodrow Wilson commuted the death sentence to Life-Without Parole as the result
of Stroud's mother's intervention and her pleading for clemency. While at
Leavenworth, and as a result of finding an injured bird, Stroud began caring for
and studying birds. Eventually, he was allowed to care for these birds in
an adjoining segregation cell. Stroud authored two books on
canaries. Diseases of Canaries
was published in 1933 and Stroud's
Digest on the Diseases of Birds was published in 1942. He raised
numerous birds in the cell area and he also did some research on medicines that
he developed for birds. Stroud was reported to have an IQ between 112 and
134 and he was considered an expert on Canaries, in addition to other birds and
even poultry. An Indiana widow, Della May (or Mae?) Jones, was a canary enthusiast
and moved to Kansas to assist Stroud in his marketing efforts and the business
of selling canaries.
In a failed effort to avoid being transferred from Leavenworth, Stroud and Jones
claimed that they were married as evidenced by a signed contract dated August
15, 1933. After years of raising and studying birds, guards discovered
that Stroud used some of the equipment to make a still and was distilling booze.
In addition to the books concerning birds, Stroud also wrote two additional
books. He wrote Looking Outward: A History of the U.S. Prison System
which covered the prison system up to the 1930's. The second book is Stroud's autobiography titled Bobbye.
Both books were seized by The Bureau of Prisons in the late 1950's and neither
book has ever been published. Some 50 years later, the books remain impounded by the courts.
The writings were reported to be an embarrassment to the prison system by
describing guard brutality and rampant sex escapades throughout the
prison.

Because of his continuing disregard for rules, he was sent to Alcatraz and
became prisoner #594-AZ on December 19, 1942. The popular 1962 MGM movie Birdman
of Alcatraz starring Burt Lancaster as Robert Stroud was a fictional
account, as Stroud was not allowed to have any birds at Alcatraz. While
the movie portrayed Robert as a kindly, caring, elderly gentleman, Stroud more
closely resembled a homicidal and suicidal maniac. Because of his unruly
nature, he spent most of his time in solitary confinement. Of his 54 years
in prison, Stroud served 42 of those years in segregation or solitary. Ill
health caused a transfer to the Medical Center for Federal Prisoners in
Springfield, MO in 1959. Robert Stroud died there in 1963 at the age of
73.

I have made inquiries to several people as to how Stroud ended
up buried in Metropolis, IL however I have been unable
to find out as of this
writing in 2005. If you are aware of the circumstance of his burial,
please contact me at